The invention relates to a telephone-holder mounting support for vehicles, with a surface for mounting a telephone-holder, charger adapter or similar, objects and means of securing it inside the vehicle.
Standard vehicles, especially passenger cars, do not come equipped with any pre-manufactured device for securing a telephone-holder. Telephone-holders of the type referred to here serve to detachably hold mobile telephones used in vehicles. They frequently also function as charger adapters for charging up a telephone battery. Special holders, which we will refer to in this context as mounting supports, on which a telephone-holder or charger adapter can be mounted, have therefore been available on the market for a long time. The shapes of these mounting supports differ in line with the particular vehicle type, but always feature a mounting surface, possibly with ready-made bores, to which can be secured a telephone-holder and suitable means of fixing the support somewhere in the vicinity of the vehicle dashboard, more or less within easy reach of the driver.
If the telephone-holder is designed as a charger adapter, a connection to the vehicle""s power supply has to be provided. In many instances, this power connection is contrived behind the panelling of the dashboard, although this often involves considerable fitting work. It is therefore widespread practice to use the socket of the cigarette lighter plug, which is available in most vehicles, as a socket for the cigarette lighter plugs often provided on charger adapters.
This results in a number of disadvantages. Firstly, the telephone-holder and the cigarette lighter may happen to be positioned quite far apart, so that the connecting lead has to be trailed the same length across the dashboard. In some vehicles the socket of the cigarette lighter is located under an ashtray flap so that it is impossible to shut the ashtray when the plug is plugged in. And finally, the cigarette lighter can no longer be used for its original purpose.
The invention is therefore based on the task of creating a mounting support of the above-mentioned type, which simplifies and extends the ways of supplying power to mobile telephones.
For telephone-holder mounting supports of the above type, this task is solved by incorporating a cigarette lighter socket in the mounting support.
This means that a cigarette lighter plug running out from the charger adapter of a mobile telephone can be plugged into the socket for the purpose of supplying power directly, and without a long detour. Hence it is not necessary to run the connecting lead over to vehicle""s cigarette lighter. Furthermore, the socket can also be used as an additional power connection for other appliances such as e.g. a car vacuum, air pumps, manual headlights etc.
The socket is preferably disposed somewhere on the mounting support such that it opens out downwards, so that it is not normally visible. This type of arrangement is particularly easy to achieve if the mounting support is made from a block of foamed plastic which provides both the mounting surface on the one hand, and the option of incorporating a cigarette lighter socket on the other hand.
In all other respects, the mounting support can be designed in any way. It can be a sheet metal plate, or any other construction, including an injection moulded plastic element or similar.